The Horned Man

I'll be honest, I read this almost purely on the basis of Lasdun's paranoia, reported in his memoir On Being Stalked, that its subject matter would lend credence to his stalker's suggestions that he was sexually inappropriate to her (though they both agree that, actually, he was not). The central character does initially seem to be the quintessential author-insert character -- a mediocre would-be writer, with the author's own nationality, who is improbably lusted over by various female characters despite his apparent lack of interesting or attractive features.

But the plot pretty quickly takes a turn for the bizarre, and then another turn for the even-more-bizarre. Lasdun does a great job of not only of crafting a compelling thriller but show more also, I think, of skewering the milquetoast author-insert trope, which he leverages well to his advantage. It's a very paranoid read -- also true, of course, of Lasdun's memoir -- but also very intelligent. Would recommend to anyone looking for a short Twilight Zone-y thriller. show less

This is a strange and difficult book, which enraptured me and alienated me by turns. The narrator is unreliable from the start and the game is to piece together what is really happening as he lurches from disaster to disaster, subject to paranoia and moments of hallucinatory dread.
Lawrence is a lecturer at a small New York college with a seat on the Sexual Harassment Committee and an uneasy relationship with many of his colleagues. His wife has left him and he may or may not have made advances to another colleague and/or a student who keeps leaving him essays which he never reads. The action moves between his apartment, the college and his department office, a room he inherited from a female lecturer who has been murdered. He suspects show more another colleague – sacked in disgrace for sleeping with students - of haunting his life, even sleeping in his office, and lying in wait for him. If that isn’t complicated enough, throw in a disappearing murder weapon, the theft of a neighbour’s glass eye, a hostile relationship with his analyst, a period of cross-dressing in the clothes of his murdered predecessor, and a nightmare penchant for migraines – and you have one of the weirdest and most engrossing mysteries I for one have ever come across.
Written in beautifully concise and lucid prose (Lasdun is a well-established poet), nevertheless the reader cannot expect any neatly tied plot lines or satisfactory arrests. This is a condition of life novel, not a murder mystery, more Kafka than Chandler. Moving, funny, violent and – in the end – terrifying, this book is quite unlike anything I have ever read before. show less

I did not like this at all. It was reminiscent of something I've already read, but I suspect that I would forgive or enjoy that if this were a story I liked. But though it seems reasonably well written, allusive, and snappy, that didn't stop it from being a deeply unlikable journey, and not at all redemptive. I don't want to be in this head without a point.

A truly excellent novel! I could not put this book down, starting from 9 pm until about midnight when I finished. Would I recommend it? Definitely, but not to everyone. If you're looking for something along the lines of cut and dried plot with everything explained to you & tidied up at the end, you're not going to like this book. I went to sleep thinking about it & woke up the same. Very chilling & eerie novel; not so much a "thriller" as I've seen it advertised but rather a study of the psychosis of paranoia & the loss of control in an alien environment.

The main character is Lawrence Miller, a British ex-pat who teaches gender studies at a college in New York City. He is also a member of the sexual harassment committee at the college, show more and has replaced a professor who we learn has been murdered. In his personal life, Miller is separated from his wife, Carol, and is seeing a therapist so as to deal with Carol's absence. Sounds okay so far, yeah? Well, here's where it gets interesting. One day while in his office, he takes out a book & realizes that the bookmark has moved and that he has lost his place. Then, during one of the sexual harassment committee meetings, where they are discussing what to do about a certain professor who is currently the target of allegations, another name comes up: Bogomil Trumilcik, another professor who was said to have gone crazy & disappeared after being brought up on sexual harassment charges before the committee. He was a womanizer, making advances supposedly to every woman with whom he came into contact. Miller becomes fascinated with Trumilcik, and begins to suspect that Trumilcik is the person behind things being moved or disappearing from his office. Miller becomes so obsessed with Trumilcik that he begins to perceive that Trumilcik is ruining his life.

The true meat of this story is Miller's paranoia and obsessions in the midst of (or as the result of?) being in a place in which he feels different and alien. You have to judge for yourself what is really going on in this book.

An excellent work and I know that at somepoint I'm going to go back to it, because it really needs a second reading. show less

I was thoroughly confused by the end of this book. In fact, I was left with the feeling of not even knowing whether I liked this book or not.

The story begins with an English expatriot professor of gender studies who was asked to be part of a team determining sexual harassment at the college which employs him. He is newly separated from his wife but is determined to have her back. Spending time in his office, he gets the feeling that someone is out to get him, but does not understand why, although he has an idea who it might be.

For a while, I was intrigued by the story, but as it got more involved, I felt sort of left by the wayside. When it evolved into the surreal, I was almost near the end. Oddly, I found that reading the story show more itself was entertaining, but trying to understand it was not. show less

Laurence Miller, an Englishman teaching gender studies at a college in New York, becomes obsessed by Bogomil Trumilcik, a Bulgarian immigrant and former lecturer at the college. Miller is convinced that Trumilcik is spying on him, sleeping in his office in the gap between two desks that have been pushed together and trying to frame him for murder.

Not really to my taste, but I carried on with it as it was less than 200 pages long and I was kind of intrigued to find out what happened. I'm just not keen on first person stories told by someone whose view of events is so skewed from reality.

You know almost from the beginning that Laurence is deluded. Anyone in a normal state of mind who really believed that someone was breaking into his show more office at night would at the very least have separated the desks, removed all items left behind by previous occupants of the room, arranged to have the locks changed and requested that campus security keep a close eye on his office. show less

This was one of those books that I just didn't want to put down. It caught my attention, drew me in, and was snared in its trap. I've never read anything like it--strange in a new way. Will definitely reread this one .